Oseltamivir, an anti-virus drug recommended by WHO for treating the deadly H5N1 strain of the bird flue virus, is currently marketed by the Switzerland's Roche under the trade name of Tamiflu and the protection of China's patent law.
Facing the growing fears of the bird flu pandemic in humans and the increasing numbers of cases in the world, countries are stockpiling the drug to fight against the deadly disease.
To help Chinese pharmaceuticals obtain the license for the mass production of the generic version of the drug, researchers from the CAS Institute of Materia Medica (SIMM) started an emergency research program in late October. It took them only five days to complete studies into the synthetic process of Tamiflu, leading to an the success in their pilot studies. The drug sample produced with the raw materials developed by SIMM researchers is found to have the same component with Tamiflu. This know-how has helped the Shanghai Pharmaceutical Group (SPG) pass the evaluation of a Roche's team on SPG's capability, including raw materials, facilities and processes and secure a license from the Switzerland firm.
On Dec. 12 SPG and Roche signed an agreement allowing the Chinese firm to produce the drug, which is to be sold only to the government for pandemic use. SPG is expected to be able to produce 200,000 treatments a month in the next six months.
